


Opening Yourself Up To Cheer

by Januarium



Category: Glee
Genre: Klaine Book Project, M/M, Summer Camp, cheerleading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 03:36:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4463960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Januarium/pseuds/Januarium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt is excited when he first meets Blaine at Cheer Camp, but not for long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opening Yourself Up To Cheer

**Author's Note:**

> Come with fabbo art by WTHisPattySimcox which you can see on the [tumblr post](http://januarium.tumblr.com/post/125444502334/opening-yourself-up-to-cheer-by-januarium-art-by)!

Kurt was excited when he first met Blaine Anderson, on the first day of Kurt’s third year at Wapakoneta Summer Cheer Camp. Blaine had been unpacking in the cabin when Kurt had arrived, still wearing his own clothes. Kurt immediately noticed how put together and stylish he was. That, the copies of Vogue Kurt saw in his suitcase, plus the polite way Blaine introduced himself was enough to send Kurt’s heart pounding against his will. He'd introduced himself, making sure  to make himself sound as impressive as possible because, well, he really wanted Blaine to like him. There weren't so many guys at camp, and Kurt wasn’t close with those that were. He had his girls, and it wasn't something he hated, but in Blaine he spotted some sort of potential kinship.

Kurt had never expected to get as involved with cheerleading as he did, but he discovered he was good and it became a way of life. Given a space to shine, he grabbed hold of it. Wapakoneta welcomed cheerleaders from all over Ohio, though of course the McKinley High Cheerios were the cream of the crop. Blaine’s school, North Lima High, was up and coming, but from what Kurt had heard McKinley had nothing to fear from them just yet. Kurt planned on wowing Blaine with some of his signature moves, throw in that he was Coach Sue Sylvester’s favorite, and just wait for Blaine to beg to be his friend. He would begrudgingly agree, of course. His fantasy had just reached him becoming Blaine’s mentor and getting him good enough to transfer schools when it came crashing to a halt.

What had never occurred to Kurt was that Blaine might actually be better than him at something. The first day of camp, everyone was just messing about. Kurt was letting other people go first for maximum effect when he wowed them, except he never got to that point. Blaine stepped up and Kurt was expecting some pretty simple tumbling, and instead what he saw was a  front tuck, step out, round-off, back handspring, step out, round-off, back handspring, finishing with a flawless back tuck \- the very move Kurt had been desperately working on and not quite getting for over a year.  He could wow through the combinations, but he lost it at the final tuck. By the time it came to Kurt, he knew he was off, and the sympathetic glance Mercedes sent him told him she knew as well. Adding insult to injury, Blaine came over and clasped him on the back and said he’d be happy to offer some tips any time.

That was how it  had started,  and before long Kurt had a full on vendetta against Blaine Anderson. The next day he gloried over being better than him at handsprings, getting more annoyed when Blaine responded with nothing but being seemingly impressed. Coming back to the  boys’ cabin to find Blaine playing cards with Mike, Matt, Ryder, and Jake, who had always just stuck to their pairs and basically ignored Kurt, rubbed salt into the wound. It wasn’t like he wasn’t friendly with them, they weren’t mean, but it was nothing like the way they were laughing together without him. Sure, Mike and Matt went to Blaine’s school, but the way Jake and Ryder were laughing at something he’d said made it clear it wasn’t just about that. Blaine instantly offered to deal Kurt in, but he made up an excuse about collecting some moisturiser for Mercedes to borrow and ran away.

The thing was, Blaine Anderson was intensely- suspiciously- charming. Tina was obsessed with him within a day. She tried to convince Kurt they should invite him into their late night girl chats with Mercedes in between waxing lyrical about his eyes, his smile, and his flexibility. Even Becky and Bree liked him, and they didn’t seem to like anything except power and trying to one-up each other.

Kurt didn’t trust him, because being intensely charming means people will do things for you when you ask, and he hated being manipulated. There  was nothing more embarrassing than realised you’ve been played by some handsome boy with no real interest, as he’d discovered in his first year at camp. No one really listened to him about Blaine,, even though Mercedes always nodded along sympathetically. He could tell that Blaine was being passive aggressive even if no one else could. No one is really that nice all the time.

Blaine had the whole camp wrapped around his little finger. He got picked to be captain for team activities way too often - it was his first year! - and always picked Kurt for his team. Sure, he said it was because he knew Kurt was good, but all Kurt heard was “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

It came to a head at breakfast at the end of the first week. Mason and Madison, the eternally perky tween twins, were discussing how they were going to win the karaoke competition for  the _tenth year in a row_ (and they were just lucky Mercedes had decided it wasn’t fair for her to compete when she was so much better than everyone else) when Blaine piped up with, “Karaoke? That’s awesome! I love singing.”

“Kurt’s an incredible singer,” Tina said, because apparently she lost the ability to know when to shut up along with that stutter she had in freshman year.

“We could do a duet!” Blaine said, and he must have some sort of ability to hypnotise people with those sparkly eyes because somehow Kurt found himself agreeing.

There were only two days before the contest and he was beginning to despair because, well. Blaine was really good. Not only that, but he listened to Kurt’s suggestions, and then followed them up with his own which Kurt had to pretend to hate even though they were really good. He didn’t even know why he kept doing it at this point. If they were a team he should just pick the best option, but the way Blaine responded so nicely every single time just made Kurt want to find out if he had a limit. They had  gotten through song choice, practice, and had even done their choreography when, a hour before the competition, Kurt criticised Blaine’s footwork maybe a little too harshly and discovered that yes, he did have one. 

“Okay, I have tried to be friends with you, I’ve tried to talk to your friends to find out what you like, I’ve made us work together as much as possible, and you agreed to do a duet with me, so I thought, hey, that’s progress! Except, either I exclusively have the worst ideas in the universe, or you’ve decided to be a butthead for no good reason when Tina keeps saying you’re so nice!”

Kurt almost wanted to laugh at the word butthead, but Blaine’s open, angry face was too sad for that. He’d wanted to see beneath the polished surface, but this was more than he’d bargained for. Blaine looked like he’d been broken and Kurt had to consider maybe he’d taken it too far. “I guess I just hated that you came in and you were suddenly better than me, and you didn’t just hang out with the other guys, you took Tina from me, too. Which isn’t fair, because it’s not like she’s my possession, I guess I just convinced myself that you were being passive aggressive so I decided to respond by being… a butthead.”

Blaine’s lips twitched at Kurt’s repeating his word. He took a deep breath before speaking. “So… I may have actually been being a bit passive aggressive? I just, I really like being the best at stuff, and I sort of don’t even have competition  with the guys at my school. Mike and Matt are incredible, but they can’t do the stuff I can. Add in that I could tell you didn’t like me, and I just wanted to prove that I was above all that and… I guess we were both buttheads. I just really wanted you to like me.”

Kurt opened his mouth to accept the apology (he wasn’t even going to gloat about being right, not until he was telling Mercedes all about this later), but what came out was, “But why did you want me to like you?”

Blaine blushed to the tips of his ears and lowered his eyes, but Kurt could still read his face. Blaine with his  defenses  down was sort of amazing. “Well, I’d actually seen you before? On a screen, I mean, because of course we watch your first Nationals win all the time, and I sort of had your Celine Dion medley as my alarm clock tone for a while.” Blaine took a breath, “Which, I know sounds very creepy. I just thought you seemed cool, and you’re really funny, even when you’re being mean to me and think I don’t realise it. Plus, when you move you are just… mesmerising.”

Kurt was pretty sure he was the one blushing now. “Um. Wow. I… actually really wanted you to like me, too. I mean, I had no idea who you were before we got here, but I noticed you immediately, and I thought we could be friends. But then you managed to not only be really good and even better than me in some ways, but you made friends with people so quickly, when it really doesn’t work like that for me. I have friends, but I don’t let people in so easily. Which, I guess you’ve noticed.” Blaine was about to speak when Kurt added- “And you are an incredible cheerleader, honestly, Blaine. One of the best. Sorry about how I’ve been.”

Blaine looked like he’d been lit from the inside. “It’s funny, I really love cheerleading because at its heart it’s about supporting people and making them happy. The bells and whistles are fun, sure, but they aren’t why I do it. I’m sorry I lost that a bit.”

Kurt shook his head, because he had definitely never thought of cheering that way, but of course Blaine really was nice enough that he did. “That’s okay, I should be used to that competition edge after years in the Cheerios. Maybe it’s also good to remember that working against someone isn’t the only way to get better. I think we could actually be a pretty good team.”

Blaine smiled and ducked his head. “You think we can start again?”

“How about instead of that we go from here, except better? Tell me about yourself, Blaine.” 

They talked for so long they didn’t realise they’d completely missed the competition until Kitty came looking for them. It was worth listening to her complaining they’d let the Vitamin D twins win _again_ for the way Blaine smiled at Kurt behind her back.


End file.
